Tron Builds a Servbot
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: Tron creates the first Servbot just in time for the Young Inventors Fair. This year's winning prize comes in monetary form, so Teisel convinces her to enter her new Servbot knowing for sure that it will win. But when someone wants to buy the design, will Tron just give away her greatest creation or will it become a part of the family? [AU-ish]
1. Chapter 1

The idea dawned upon the young inventor one day in a brilliant stroke of genius.

Actually, it was because Teisel screwed up dinner again.

But nonetheless, it was an idea that made Tron push aside everything she had to do just to work on the project. She always knew that there were going to be more than one- forty, to her, seemed like a well rounded number so she planned for forty. Each day was spent figuring out a unique personality for each of the little creations, and she wrote it all down in a notebook dedicated to just the project. Making sure each one had their own ability and power took quite some time- Teisel helped a bit, but that was only because he wanted less chores to do (not that she was going to admit that she was trying to do the same thing). Then Tron started sketching.

Working slowly and carefully to get her vision out, Tron etched a tiny sketch on her notepad of the basic form. A simplistic design was what they needed, nothing over the top or too dramatic. She wanted something… dependable. Something that other folks unfamiliar with the Bonne family would never recognize, whereas enemies of the Bonne family would see the little robots and know exactly who they belonged to.

With a cold shiver, she realized that she needed something… cute. No one would ever trust a design that looked scary, threatening, or malicious if it ever walked up next to them on the street. It might get mistaken for a rouge Reaverbot, and that wasn't going to be good.

The sketch that she was satisfied with was one of the last ones she drew; the creation was going to hae small, jointed limbs and claw-like hands, most parts would be close to a cylinder shape except for the shoulder joint- it would be round to allow greater movement of the arms. It was a rather simple design, and unsuspecting. It was perfect.

Of course, the first person she gave the design to was Teisel.

He looked over the design for nearly ten minutes, rubbing his chin in thought and letting out sounds of decisive inquiry that he didn't disclose with Tron. It made her nervous. Could he just tell her how he felt about it and get it over with already?

"Did you create this yourself?" he finally asked. "It's a rather decent sketch."

"Yep." Tron affirmed with an anxious nod.

"Do you have the inside schematics finished yet?" Teisel then asked, looking up at her with a small raise of his eyebrow.

"No. But I found some other schematics that Momma had hidden away. I think they predate the world as we know it, but still seemed rather sound in design so I wanted to refine them."

"Do you think you can do it?" Teisel questioned.

Tron looked at him as if he was talking nonesense. "Duh!" came her curt reply. There wasn't even a second more before Tron found herself wrapped in Teisel's arms for a hug.

"I'm so proud of you Tron!" Teisel declared, pulling his sister even closer. "Wanting to take on such a huge project on your own! Great-great-great grandmother Ren would be so proud of you!"

"Teisel… you're… squishing… me…!"

"Oh! Sorry about that. But this is exciting! My little sister, creating her own artificial intelligence at the age of eleven!"

"It's not that hard Teisel." Tron told him, successfully peeling herself out of her brother's grip.

"For us it isn't." Teisel declared, pumping his fist in the air. "We Bonnes are attuned to the very forces that create such advanced AI! Believe me when I say that not everyone has the same knowledge we do Tron, never assume otherwise."

"So you approve the design?" Tron inquired, bringing the main discussion back up again.

"Absolutely." he firmly agreed. "But, uh… what are we going to do to fund this?"

"We're air pirates, aren't we?" Tron replied, cocking her eyebrow playfully. "There's more than enough banks between here and where ever our ship goes to steal what we need. We can always earn our own money of course, but there's not much fun in that. And… Teisel?"

"Yes Tron?"

"Can I… can I earn the Zenny on my own? I know you're the one that usually goes on the raids and stuff so I'm stuck as your Spotter, but… but I really want to do this on my own. Is… is that alright with you?"

Tron looked at her brother, half expecting him to protest. But he stood there; a faint well of tears started to gather in Teisel's eyes before he -unexpectedly- gave her another rather crushing hug.

"You're… growing up… so… _fast_!" he happily wept as his huge tears landed on Tron's dress, leaving behind a rather large wet spot. Tron gave an uneasy smile while trying to pry herself out of Teisel's grip again, this time to little prevail.

. . .

The old schematics made Tron feel like she needed to wear gloves just so they wouldn't fall apart while looking over them. As much as she wanted to know how her mother got the decaying piece of paper to begin with, she really wanted to know what the schematics were for; the main title had been torn and smeared though time, but she could still make out a few letters.

M*** M*N X M*IN R**L*I* D*SI*N

What on earth could that be?

Regardless, Tron copied a large part of the schematic onto a silhouette of her creation and took notes of what part would go were, if she could make them out on the main design. Some parts of the original design seemed rather outdated too (or far ahead of its time, some of it seemed like) and it led the young inventor to improvise some components. It wasn't anything she couldn't make herself after all. Teisel had been right about their family being extra adept to building robots and robotic-like machines, the ability had been in their family for so long it was almost second nature. Perhaps it was an effect of having been able to trace their family ties to before the world was mostly water.

Tron spent the next day finding what she needed to make the correct circuits. She quickly found out that she needed more Titanium X than what she had on hand, and she went to Teisel so they could find an island with a greater abundance. It was only when she and Teisel were going over their plans of attack when it donned upon Tron that this project wasn't going to be easy- and we're not talking about the mission, oh no, I mean the construction of her new creation. There were going to be other islands that they had to raid for supplies, there were going to be nights when she wouldn't sleep just because something wasn't working, there were going to be times where she'd stop paying attention to what she was doing and singe her fingers with a welder's torch.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Teisel asked her one last time as he helped her get comfortable inside the Gustaff MK.1. Tron didn't answer for a moment as she lulled over the question herself.

"I wouldn't be a Bonne if I backed out now." she finally replied with a shake of her head. Teisel looked at his sister and calmly placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry Tron, the first raid is always the easiest, especially when you come to a new island for the first time."

Tron looked up at her brother and gave a tiny smile. "Thanks Teisel." she graciously thanked. "Now prepare to set me down on this island!"

"Right away Tron!" Teisel agreed happily.


	2. Chapter 2

"Dammit!" Tron screeched before shaking her finger off to cool it down. She knew she was going to do that eventually, but that didn't stop the pain from hurting any less. Now any moment Teisel was going to come into her work lab and offer an adhesive bandage and burn ointment; her other fingers could attest for his constant care. She really needed to start wearing gloves while welding. Why didn't she do that anyway?

"You need to start wearing gloves Tron." Teisel remarked from behind her, seemingly out of no where and scaring the living daylights out of her. "It doesn't look as bad as the one on your pinky though."

"That one was intentional."

"Obviously."

Without having her permission, Teisel administered the ointment and bandage with ease onto her burned finger.

"How much longer?" he then asked curiously.

"I won't piece the parts together until later," Tron told him, "I want to see if I can paint the outside parts before fully assembling it."

"Wouldn't that be trickier?" Teisel questioned. Tron shook her head.

"If I assemble the main components together in pieces (the electron brain in the head, for example), then all I would need to do is connect them like like a jointed doll or interlocking plastic bricks."

"How do you know it will stay together?"

"Don't you remember stepping on a small interlocking plastic brick? Remember how those suckers were hard to separate once placed on another interlocking plastic brick?"

Teisel nodded, rubbing his chin in deep thought. "I see… That's rather brilliant."

"I know." Tron boasted. "I'm a Bonne."

Teisel tried to hard to stifle a proud smile. "What about the programming?" he then asked her. She responded with a shake of her head, showing that she had no idea how she was going to do it.

"I'm thinking about doing the programming last and leaving a compartment in the head for data storage. Maybe after finishing this one, I'll find a better way to approach the others."

"So the first one's going to be the prototype?"

Tron grimaced; 'prototype' was not one of her favorite words, when she built something, she built it to be right the first time. 'Prototype' implied being scrapped when something didn't go right to start all over again. Normally, if she was building a mech, this wouldn't have been as big of a deal- but with this new project she was creating _life_. If it didn't work, it would have been… it would have been _murder_ for her to shut it down again. She was a Bonne, she knew better.

"Not a prototype- I build to last." Tron finally told her brother. He gave her a rather thoughtful nod in return, holding back a few words that he wanted to tell her. But his faith in her was tremendous, and the two kept the conversation at that.

. . .

Coloring in her sketch had proved to be quite calming for Tron as she assembled the greater parts of her new creation. She needed to think simple, a two and a half coloring scheme that could still make the creations stand out against the rest.

The head, hands, and some little accents were going to be yellow because it was noticeable. Tron figured that she would leave some parts unpainted, keeping the very few parts gray from the metal, just to save a bit of money. But what color was she going to give the main body? Using green would have been rather foolish to blend with the yellow, the resulting combination could easily get them lost on islands with tall, grassy fields. Using yellow again would have been redundant, and the paint cost would get high way too quickly- the same idea came from orange as well. Black was boring and white would get too bright when on a beach-like island.

Her final choices came down to red or blue.

Unfortunately, they both looked rather good on the sketch.

"There's only one way to settle this." Tron said to herself. She then craned herself around toward her door and shouted at the top of her lungs, "TEISEL! I NEED YOUR HELP!"

Not a second after the words left her mouth, Teisel had rushed to the room looking as if she was about to kill herself.

"What happened Tron?!" Teisel questioned in a tone that was just as worried as he appeared to be, although she looked to be totally fine. "Did you glue your finger together? Did you weld something wrong? Did someone fall down the well again?"

Tron held up her sketch with her creation, half of it had been colored red with the other half colored blue. "Red or blue?" Tron asked, sounding a bit sheepish at her brother's emotion. Times she considered him to be like Tinker Bell from the original Peter Pan stories- only able to express a single emotion no matter how extreme it was. How was he able to do that? Because right now, it was sort of freaking her out. He could be so _serious_ some days that it almost became uncanny…

"Which one do you like more?" Teisel questioned.

"The red." Tron slowly answered.

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"Then why do you want blue?"

"Because… it'll stand out I think."

"So why are you considering red then?"

"I don't know."

Teisel stared his sister down although she didn't have another answer to give. Tron watched as he got up and left the room only to come back a few minutes later with a photograph. "Could this be why?" he asked, showing it to her. Tron looked at her brother as she took the photograph from her brother and looked at it, she soon realized that it was one of the few pictures that the Bonne family had somehow managed to keep after the current world came to be. It was a picture of some woman triumphantly posing in the frame wearing a rather short red dress with orange trimming and holding a rather unfamiliar gun in her right hand. Barely seen in the background was a guy dressed in a dark blue suit with long brown hair, rolling his eyes off to the side as if unappreciative of the girl's flamboyancy. The only context the picture could give was a barely legible note scribbled on the back; RED HOT, KNOCKING 'EM DEAD!

"What does this have to do with anything?" Tron questioned, looking at her brother with confusion.

"She's our ancestor."

Tron blinked. "Yeah, so?"

"This is the only photograph we have have her too. The only thing we really know about her was that she was a hero and she did something that helped bring this new world."

"Teisel this better have a point or I'm going to think something's wrong with you."

Teisel only gave a small, rather mysterious smile as he pointed at Tron. "The Familiarity Principle." he said to her knowingly before leaving the room for good this time. Tron shook her head and rubbed her temples as she looked over the photograph once more.

Since when did Teisel know about psychological theories any way?


	3. Chapter 3

The hobby store smelled like fresh paint and heated glue. A familiar and comforting smell, but that didn't stop it from being noxious at the same time.

Tron had never been to this store in particular, so she did the right thing and found an employee that could help her. That did not mean, however, that she had to be nice. Naturally, the employee wasn't at the service desk near the paint supplies, so she rang the bell on the desk. At first, she only tapped it, but her lack of patience led to more than one ring- five rings carefully spaced out soon became eleven rings in rapid succession. It didn't take much more than five minutes for an employee to come around, but by then Tron had rung the service bell so much that a small dot was now imprinted on the palm of her hand.

"Can I help you?" the employee questioned her, looking her up and down as if she were out of place. Tron stood up straight, asserting her given right of authority over the employee.

"I've come to liquidate any red paint you have on hand." Tron announced importantly. The employee raised an unamused eyebrow.

"Which color?" he asked.

"Red."

The employee nodded and started to head toward the red paints, motioning for Tron to follow him. With a small hand wave, he directed her attention toward the red paint left in stock. Tron looked over the price, then almost did all in her power not to throw a fit.

"Red paint costs _HOW_ much Zenny?!" she screeched in surprise.

"It's supply and demand sweetie." claimed the employee with a knowing, nasty smirk, "111800 Zenny for the paint, or no paint at all."

Tron stood where she was for a long time. There was no way; the employee must be yanking her chain or something, there was no way that a single bucket of paint to keep up with supply and demand could be that expensive!

"How much is the blue paint?" Tron questioned. The employee's smirk was unwavering as he led her toward the blue paints.

"27950 Zenny a bucket."

Thinking, Tron bit her lower lip. ' _I can get four buckets of blue for the price of one red…_ ' she thought to herself. ' _Teisel was right though, I really like red better though… Urg…! Why did_ this _decision have to be the hard one?_ '

"Can I have ten buckets of blue then?"

"Of course, I'll get working on it right away madam."

Feeling somewhat accomplished, but just as unsatisfied, Tron crossed her arms as the employee got the buckets of paint ready for her. "111800 Zenny for a single bucket of paint… ridiculous." she muttered. "Wait until Teisel hears about this!"

. . .

Similar to how she couldn't tell how Teisel was able to channel his emotions, Tron questioned how much he actually listened to her. Most of the time she was sure that he only said what he did because he knew she needed to hear it. Their father was the same way, which was why she was certain Teisel did such a thing.

Tron ranted a good ten minutes over the price of paint. She even brought up some good points that could have shaken the paint industry at its core, but all Teisel said or did was nod, agree, and stare at her pensively as he waited for her to cool off.

"And that's why monkeys shouldn't be allowed to party!" Tron concluded with an angered flourish. Teisel nodded in agreement, his fingers knitted together as they sat under his chin. He really did look like he had been listening the entire time and was taking her seriously; bless him.

"So what do you plan on doing next?" Teisel asked her.

"Revolution!" Tron declared. "Next thing tomorrow I'm going to get the Gustaff and sho-"

"I meant with your project." interrupted Teisel. "What do you plan on doing next with your project now that you have the paint? You're not going to let it lay around for another week, are you?"

"No!" Tron cried, sticking her nose up in disgust. "I'm going to paint the parts tonight, maybe even finish up with the AI during breaks."

"And what time do you think you're going to bed at?"

"Oh I dunno, late."

"How late?"

Tron gave her brother an odd look, unsure of what he was getting at or why he was so concerned about her. He was acting like their father, really.

"You need at least seven hours of sleep Tron," Teisel softly reminded her. "You'll need to stop working around..."

"I _know_ Teisel." Tron huffed. "I'll be in bed before that, don't worry. Now, can I go start working again? The faster I get to working again, the faster I can go to bed."

Teisel nodded, permitting her to leave.

"Thank you." Tron sighed, now feeling guilty for some reason and grateful for getting him off of her back for a little longer.

It was long past her agreed bedtime with Teisel that Tron was still working. Everything was painted at that point, but she couldn't just leave the data before forgetting it in the morning. She must have muttered something rather loud because Teisel was quick to find that she was not in bed yet, and came to check on her.

"Tron, aren't you going to bed?" he questioned, sounding stern but concerned.

"Not now Teisel," Tron tried to dismiss with a wave of her hand, "I need to streamline the cognitive circuit to be more intuitive with the-"

"You're not going to think clearly enough to do that if you're tired Tron." her brother pointed out. "Get some sleep please."

"How can I sleep now Teisel when I'm _so_ close to finishing the first one?! I need to keep going!"

"Tron… sleep."

"But I…!"

Teisel casually walked over to her, forced her away from the worktable then started to lead her to her bedroom. "Sleep." he commanded before shutting the door behind him, leaving Tron alone in the dark in her room. For a moment, Tron was stunned.

"You can't keep me in here Teisel!" Tron hollared, getting closer to her door and started to pound on it. "I'm not a kid! Let me out! You've got to sleep sometime soon too, you know!"

But he did not let go of the doorknob, and by extension, did not let her out. Knowing that he wasn't going to go away any time soon either, Tron gave out an angry growl before stomping over to her bed and flinging herself across the covers.

There was no way that she was going to sleep. Not at all.


	4. Chapter 4

If she went to sleep, Tron was sure that it wasn't for long. Her mind was reeling; mentally perfecting the main coding in her brain, making sure that what she had done so far will all mesh together perfectly, and most importantly, working over a plan to exact revenge on the hobby shop worker over their paint prices. Oh yes, revenge will be made indeed.

The sun was just peaking through the horizon when Tron jumped out of bed. Immediately, she went straight to her workbench and started to work on the project again. Working hard, Tron finished the cognitive circuit and placed it in the head of her project. Satisfied, and giving one more check of several joints in the body, Tron started to assemble the little figure like plastic interlocking building bricks. As she connected the joints, Tron took extra care into soldering the vital wires connecting the piecing together. After finishing with that, Tron looked over the newly assembled robot and checked everything before opening a panel at the back of its head to run the boot sequence.

A confirming beep informed Tron that the sequence had been a success and she instantly turned the little creation around to look it square in the eye.

"Hello." she said to the robot. "How do you feel?"

It didn't answer her, so she tried again.

"My name is Tron. I created you to be a servant to my family, the Bonnes. So I guess that means you need to call me Miss Tron- and my brother Teisel, you'll have to call him 'Master Teisel' too, hehe…!"

Her creation still didn't respond. Suddenly, despair and failure swept through young Tron like a punch in the gut.

"It didn't work!" Tron shouted in despair as she hit her head on the work desk. Her groan soon became a small wail of sorrow, before grumbling, "I really wish I could take some ibuprofen right now..."

"Yes Miss Tron!"

Suddenly, Tron's head popped back up as a little flash of blue and yellow jumped off the work bench and toward the bathroom. Not sure whether to believe she had dreamed what had happened, Tron slowly started to get up and followed the creation. Sure enough, the little thing used a stool to get up to the cabinets above the sink to pull out the bottle of pain killers. It seemed rather surprised to see Tron right behind him, but he smiled up at her and offered the medicine.

"Here you go Miss Tron!" he even declared happily. Tron looked from the creation to the medicine bottle, then back again before snatching the bottle away from the little robot. Without taking her gaze from the creation, Tron cracked the medicine bottle lid open and got out two little pills for herself. After replacing the cap back on the bottle, she handed it back to the creation and it put the bottle back as Tron popped the pills into her mouth.

"Would you like anything else Miss Tron?" the little robot asked, rocking on his heels a bit while swinging his arms back and forth.

"Get me a drink." Tron ordered.

"Yes Miss Tron!" came the reply with a little salute, and without another word the creation went to the kitchen. Tron followed him again and sat down at the breakfast bar to watch the little robot get a glass from the cabinet and fill it with tap water. When it completed its mission, the robot placed the water in front of Tron and waited for a response. The girl looked at the glass water before giving the Servbot a rather unreadable glare.

"W-what's wrong Miss Tron?" the creation asked nervously, getting the feeling that it had done something wrong.

"I don't drink tap water." Tron said, rather tonelessly. "I want the bottled water from the wine cooler."

"Yes Miss Tron!" the creation agreed as he took the glass filled with tap water away into the dishwasher, then went to get another glass to fill with the bottled water from the wine cooler. Finished for good this time, the creation carefully placed the water in front of Tron once again and looked for her reaction.

This time Tron took the glass and took a long sip from the refreshing water. Not once did the creation look away from Tron- most of it was in fear of messing something up again.

"Not bad." Tron finally said, giving the creation such a sense of relief that it let out a deep sigh. But Tron wasn't done yet… "However, you forgot the ice."

"Do you want some?!" the little robot questioned frantically.

"No." Tron decided shortly. "It's too late now."

"O-oh…."

Seeing how distraught it became when it didn't do something right sent a vague feeling of accomplishment to Tron's neurons.

"There is something else you could do." she then decided.

"What's that Miss Tron?"

"Make me breakfast; an omelet seasoned with basil over boiled white rice, 2% milk in a separate cup, and a small bowl of vegetable soup on the side."

"Yes Miss Tron!" the creation replied with a salute. Tron couldn't help but smile.

. . .

An hour or so later, Teisel made his way down to the kitchen.

"Smells good Tron, what did you make?" he asked as he sat down at the table.

"I didn't make it." Tron declared triumphantly.

"Then… who did?" her brother then questioned. Tron's lips curled into a triumphant smile as a plate of food was placed in front of Teisel without him noticing. Confused, he looked down and was nearly surprised at what he saw.

"Enjoy your breakfast Master Teisel!" the little robot greeted happily before tottering away. Teisel took a confused look at the little robot, then at Tron. His sister's smile was unwavering as he gave her a hard stare.

"It worked." he said to her, although it sounded more like a question. Tron eagerly nodded as her smile grew even wider. Her cheeks were hurting at this point by how wide her grin had gotten. Teisel looked her over before suddenly getting up from the table to pull his sister into a tight bear hug.

"My sister created life!" Teisel wept happily, hugging his sister tighter still. "My sister created true life without having to engage in s-"

"Teisel!" Tron suddenly snapped, pulling herself away from him.

"Sorry." he quickly apologized, recomposing himself. "So, you've made a little robot servant, right? How about we call it a… Servbot? What do you think?"

Tron's wide smile returned again in agreement with her brother's idea. "It's perfect Teisel!"


	5. Chapter 5

"This rug isn't cleaned! Clean it up now!"

"Yes Miss Tron!"

"And when you're done with that, I need a wrench from my toolbox."

"Yes Miss Tron!"

"The red one, not that worthless black one!"

"Yes Miss Tron!"

It had been generally agreed that the Servbot was overworked at some points, but he still performed rather well overall. But with the Servbot's ability to comply, Tron came to realize that she was very, very bossy.

"How's the Servbot coming along Tron?" Teisel asked later on in the day. He had something hidden behind his back, and Tron caught on to this quickly.

"Pretty good." Tron remarked. "What are you holding behind you Teisel?"

For a moment, Teisel acted as if he didn't know what she was talking about, before realizing something. "It's a flyer I found while getting groceries earlier," he informed her as he handed the something to her. "Apparently this island has an annual young scientists fair, and I thought, since you finished your first Servbot and all..."

Giving her brother a small eyebrow raise, Tron took the flyer from him and started to read it over.

"The contest will be held… isn't that tomorrow's date?… late entries are encouraged… the winning prize is... _how much Zenny_!?"

Tron snapped her head up to look at Teisel. "Have you _seen_ this Teisel?!" Tron demanded, her tone and pitch almost reaching inhuman levels.

"I know." Teisel said to her, giving a smarmy smile as if he thought himself a genuis.

"With this much Zenny I could build off the rest of the Servbots in a month- less than two weeks if you don't let me sleep."

"I know." Teisel agreed, his smile unwavering.

"Teisel this is great, it's a miracle, it's… it's…!"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Teisel then asked her. Tron threw him a confused look, his boastful smile melted into a kinder one. "Aren't you going to tell our new friend about this?"

"New..." Tron mumbled as she tried to remember who Teisel was talking about, but then it clicked. "Oh!" she declared before dashing off to tell the Servbot about the exhibition. Teisel let out a small chuckle.

"That's my sis." he declared to himself happily.

. . .

The next day, the Bonne family didn't waste any time getting to the exhibition's location. Arranged in an open space, the sign ins were placed at the entrance. A kind looking woman with dyed blonde hair smiled as Tron made her way over.

"Are you here show a creation?" the woman asked sweetly. Tron nodded, perhaps a bit too eagerly. The Servbot was scuttled next to its maker, like a body guard, or devoted puppy.

"Wonderful!" the woman then said, flashing Tron a pure white smile before rearranging some papers. "I'll need you to sign these (both your name and the name of your creation need to be signed in the respective areas), then you can get a number from the stack on your left. Once you get on stage sweetie, you'll need to tell the audience your name, age, and the name of the island you live on before beginning a demonstration of your creation. If you forget something on stage, there will be a small panel of judges who will gently remind you on what to do. Understand?"

Tron nodded once more before letting out a small "Thank you," and did as she was told. Once the appropiate papers had been filled out and she had taken a number, Tron and the Servbot made their way to the stage. A line had been formed behind the stage of other prospective inventors, so Tron and the Servbot took their places behind the line to wait. There were there for what seemed like forever- some of the presentations lasted for a few minutes while others went on for nearly thirty. The longer they had to wait, the more the Servbot started to get antsy.

"Miss Tron I'm scared."

Almost forgetting that the Servbot could experience a certain range of emotion, Tron looked over at it with a bit of surprise.

"It's alright to be scared." Tron told the Servbot. "I'm a bit scared too."

"You _are_?!" it shouted, earning itself a less than pleased glance from someone in front of them.

Slowly, Tron gave an affirming nod. "If I… we win, our family will get a lot of money. It took a lot of resources just to make you- that money will come in handy when we build the others."

"I can't wait to have some siblings to teach!" the Servbot excitedly declared. Tron let out a slightly tense laughter with a matched side smile.

"They'll be 39 of you if we get enough money." Tron told her creation in a matter of fact tone. "Are you sure you can handle that many brothers?"

The Servbot went silent for a moment as it thought over the idea. "Yes!" he eventually declared, looking at Tron hopefully. "Just… You're not going to leave me alone in charge of them… are you?"

"Maybe." Tron replied without any hint of a true emotion. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"N-no Miss Tron..."

"Good." Tron affirmed. "Now smile, and act like you know something they don't."

"Yes Miss Tron." the Servbot dutifully agreed. Although she tried to suppress it, Tron smiled.

Finally, when it was time, Tron and the Servbot made their way up on the stage. Almost immediately when they were in eye sight of the rather small crowd, Tron could hear Teisel whoop and holler. He was so loud that someone next to him left to get security.

"That's my sister up there!" Teisel exclaimed happily as tears ran down his face. "Look at her! Knock 'em dead Tron! You know she's only eleven and a half and she made that Servbot up there without any help?! Look at it! She makes me… so... proud!"

Bashfully shrugging away her brother's comments, Tron took to the microphone and tapped it to make sure it was working. The small amount of feedback gave Tron the cue to start her presentation.

"Greetings, my name is Tron Bonne and I am eleven years old- my brother and I travel around a lot so we can not say that a single island is where we call home, but our ship is called 'Vorübergehend'. It's not all that big..."

"It's true!" Teisel sobbed. "Just last week I walked in on Tron in the-"

"Teisel!" Tron quickly snapped. "Shut. Up."

Realizing that he had embarrassed her, Teisel immediately acknowledged Tron's request and pretended to zip his lip. Letting out a sigh, Tron turned to the Servbot. It seemed to be doing pretty well overall- that, or it had been so crippled with stage fright that it refused to do anything.

"My project for this year's Inventor's Fair," Tron then continued to the crowd, "Is something I've been working on relentlessly for the past four months. It was an idea I had one day after a rather unfortunate mishap in the kitchen. It was a thought that came to me in the same way some of you might consider hiring a maid. Because… in our family -the Bonne family- we're not your run of the mill kind of people; we have been raised with a love of robots and robotic creations for as long as the world we know has been alive. To simply hire someone to be our servant wouldn't have been satisfying to us, and we would have to pay someone weekly with money we barely have. It took a lot of time, a lot of resources, and a lot of hard work to create (and to show you today) the first in a line of forty- the Bonne Family Servbot."

The crowd gave a rather modest applause (Teisel had started whooping again) as Tron then went on with the next portion of the viewing. But what was she going to instruct the Servbot to do? As if reading off of her thinking, the Servbot turned to look up at her.

"What would you like me to do Miss Tron?" it questioned, hiding his nervousness under a thin veil. Tron felt herself shake as she found that she couldn't think of something for the Servbot to do; the anxious look Teisel was giving her wasn't helping much either, really…

"Miss Tron?" it asked again, showing to show a fear that matched her own growing anxiety.

Never before could Tron remember being so scared for her life that her vision started to swim. "G-get me out of here!" she demanded.

"Yes Miss Tron!" the Servbot all too eagerly agreed before scooping her up, jumping off the stage, then dashing through the crowd like a bulldozer.

With the audience confused, an announcer declared into the stereo system, "Give a round of applause for Tron and her Servbot everyone." Still in a confused daze, no one listened.


	6. Chapter 6

She should have been surprised that the Servbot was able to carry her, considering it was a third of her height. But as she fought the urge to throw up, she didn't think much of it as the Servbot set her down near a food stand.

"Are you going to be alright?" the Servbot questioned honestly, and curiously. "Would you like me to find Master Teisel for you?"

"No… don't..." Tron told it, clutching her sides. "I'm microchipped, he'll find me in a few more… oh… minutes..."

"Would you like some curry?" the little robot then offered. "Water?"

Tron lifted her eyes up to glare at the Servbot. What a determined little pest… It was like having another brother. Did _she_ really want to have 39 more of them?

"Water." she snapped, perhaps a bit unintentionally. "You dare give me curry and I'll send you to a room where everything screams at you!"

"Yes Miss Tron!" the Servbot agreed with a quick salute, then dashed off to the closest drink stand it could find.

Alone, as the truth of what she had done crept over the young girl like a wave, Tron Bonne curled into a ball and started to cry. Her mind hated her just as much- making her mentally count how many people were watching, remembering someone who had a camera that was obviously recording, and the faces on the people as she and the Servbot pushed past…

Now she really needed to throw up.

"Hey Tron." someone said from near her. It sounded like Teisel, but she didn't bother to look up to confirm. "How are you holding up sis?"

Tron didn't answer directly- the consistent flow of tears dripping onto the ground was answer enough for her brother.

"You did better than I did my first time on a stage like that." Teisel remarked to her softly. "It was during trombone recitals- I got stage fright so bad that I just froze there. And before that, I had forgotten to go to the bathroom so I ended up having an acci-"

"Teisel!" Tron wailed, looking at her brother with puffy red eyes and no mood to find him amusing.

"Sorry." he apologized, holding his hands in the air to show innocence. "Too much info, got it. But seriously Tron, it wasn't that bad."

"I was a… a _coward_ Teisel!" Tron wept. "I… I ran off stage and didn't look back. No one even saw what the Servbot could do..."

"That's not true." her brother soothed. "They saw how much weight such a tiny robot can carry without hesitation."

In a second's breath, Tron had slapped her brother hard on the shoulder. "I'm not that heavy!" she wailed, more anger in her tone this time than remorse. Teisel saw it as an improvement.

"They saw the Servbot follow a command almost simultaneously to when it was directed, even though the command may not have been possible to follow through; They also saw how fast it could run while lifting something." Teisel encouraged, lightly rubbing his sister on the back. "It might not seem like much Tron, but seeing that little thing zip past you with an average weighed eleven year old in its arms is really something impressive. I didn't even notice you went past me until you were an eighth of a mile away! It was really something to behold- you should be proud of yourself Tron."

"Then how come I feel like dying?" she defiantly mumbled before burying her head in her hands. Teisel tried to come up with an answer but soon found that he didn't have one.

"Miss Tron! Miss Tron!" the Servbot's eager voice then spoke up as it came toward them. Both Teisel and Tron looked up, quickly noticing that a man was with the Servbot.

Quickly, Tron wiped away her tears and stood up as quickly as she could, even brushing off her dress to talk to this stranger the Servbot found. A bit slower, Teisel did the same thing.

"Ah, you must be Miss Tron Bonne," the man greeted once he was close enough to Tron to give a handshake, "My name is Sekkei Steeler. I own a domestic robot company. I have been looking for an 'edge' from the competition in my trade, you see, and I happened to catch your presentation. What that little thing did up there was quite impressive- you should be proud madam."

"Thank you." Tron graciously said to him, giving a short bow of respect. "It is an honor to meet you Mister Steeler."

"No need to call me that young lady, just Sekkei is fine." the man informed her with a fairly kind smile. "As I was saying, I happened to catch your presentation and I believe that your creation (the Servbot, was it?) could help my business."

"You… you do?" Tron questioned, looking at Steeler in disbelief. The business man nodded before directing his attention to Teisel.

"Are you her father?" he inquired, looking the older brother up and down without emotion.

"Brother." Teisel corrected. "Although I suppose you're really asking if I'm her legal guardian."

"Yes sir." Steeler nodded. "You see, I wish to industrialize Tron's creation to benefit the entire world- but the papers need an adult signature."

"I don't believe Tron agreed to signing any papers yet..." Teisel rebutted, taking on a darker tone.

"Of course sir," Steeler then quickly agreed, noticing Teisel's tone and finding himself a bit unhinged at it. "But if you wish, we can start almost immediately and-"

"I don't believe it is my wish, in any form, to sign anything for Tron." Teisel said, interrupting Steeler again. "If it is something that takes Tron's design, then Tron is the one that needs to give the okay to follow through- should she believe that it needs to be followed through, of course. Does that sound reasonable to you, Sekkei?"

The business man didn't have an answer, so Teisel turned to Tron.

"Does that sound reasonable to _you_ Tron?" Teisel asked his sister in the same tone, admittedly scaring her for a moment.

"I..." she stuttered for a moment. "I need to think about it," she then told them.

"There you have it." Teisel then addressed Steeler coldly. "Tron still needs some time to think about it."

For the longest time, Steeler and Teisel exchanged heated glares at each other.

"I will leave you my number." the business man then relented, digging into his jacket pocket to pull out a business card to hand to Teisel. Upon receiving it, Teisel then handed it to Tron instead. She looked at it- almost admiring for a moment the holographic letting on the white card.

"Rest assured, I can offer you far more zenny than what this little competition can offer." Steeler then informed the Bonne family. "And if you do wish to industrialize your creation, I can even offer a new name."

"A new… name?" Tron questioned, looking up at Steeler with a confused raise of her eyebrow.

"Yes." he affirmed. "I think 'Kobun' would be more appropriate- sounds far more professional than Servbot."

For a moment, Tron had the urge to ball up the business card in her hand and shove it down Steeler's throat. " _Excuse_ me?!" she demanded. "And what makes you think that!?"

But the business man didn't answer her, instead turning on his heel to leave. "Call me when you've made up your mind." he informed them, although it wasn't directed toward any of them. The Bonne siblings watched him with the least of heartbreaking looks, neither of them upset at his departure.

"Miss Tron…?" the Servbot then piped up. "Would you like your water now?"

Tron looked down at the Servbot, and with the same velocity of getting smacked by a train, Tron suddenly felt the urge to cry again.


End file.
